While you wouldn’t know it by looking at the retail stores already decked out for Christmas, Thanksgiving is just over a week away! Chances are that your menu is molded by tradition or expectation….whether it’s the fond memories of grandma’s stuffing, or the dread of aunt Tillie’s JELLO mold of lemon gelatin with shredded cabbage, sliced green olives, and crushed pineapple. Getting overly creative at Thanksgiving can be a recipe for disappointment. Everyone has their favorite items that they expect to see each year. Yet for the culinarily inclined and adventurous, it can be a time when you want to stretch the creative muscle and mix it up with some new recipes. My suggestion: Do a little of both.
I was recently excited to get an invitation to prepare a Thanksgiving menu with the anchors of “Better Mornings Atlanta” (BMA), an Atlanta area morning show on CBS Atlanta (WGCL). Later today I’ll be joining Brandon Rudat & Justin Lock from BMA to showcase a menu that features the traditional flavors of Thanksgiving with a few slight tweaks to make it a little untraditional.
Chef Darin Sehnert on the set of "Better Mornings Atlanta"
Justin Lock, Tracye Hutchins, Brandon Rudat & Jennifer Valdez of Better Mornings Atlanta sample Chef Darin's "Stress Free Thanksgiving"
I think Thanksgiving dinner is easiest when you have a large crowd. The bigger challenge can be when you want traditional tastes but may only be cooking for 2-6 people. Who wants to mess with a full turkey for just a couple of people?
The menu below is from my hands-on cooking class “Stress Free Thanksgiving” that I offer each year at 700 Kitchen Cooking School, part of the Mansion on Forsyth Park hotel in the historic district of Savannah, GA. Most of the items can be prepared at least partially in advance to ensure that you’ll be able to enjoy the day with your guests!
In addition to the menu I presented on the show this morning, I’ve included additional recipes that you can use as alternatives or to bulk up the number of menu offerings. The recipes for the slaw and turkey are included in this post while the others can be accessed by clicking on the links below:
Thanksgiving Menu
Apple, Fennel, & Celery Root Slaw with Cranberry Pecan Dressing
Alternative Salad: Spinach & Roasted Pumpkin Salad
Roasted Mini Pumpkins filled with Corn Pudding
Brussels Sprouts with Mushrooms, Browned Butter & Gremolata
Turkey Roulades with Italian Sausage & Dried Fruit Stuffing
in Madeira Onion Sauce
Alternative Entree:
Autumn Meatloaf Baked in Miniature Pumpkins
Cranberry Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake
Alternative Desserts:
Spiced Pumpkin Souffles
Green Tomato Pie
Apple, Fennel & Celery Root Slaw with Cranberry Orange Pecan Dressing
Tart apples combine with the refreshing flavors of fennel & celery root to make a seasonal salad that’s just a little out of the ordinary. Serve it as a salad or eat it as a relish, it can be made a day or two in advance and is easy to put together.
Yield: 10-12 Servings
3 Granny Smith or McIntosh apples
1 fennel bulb
1 bulb celery root
1 14-oz. can whole-berry cranberry sauce
¼ cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup pecan pieces, toasted, divided use
1 cup dried cranberries
Leave skin on apples and cut into quarters and remove core.
Trim upper stalks from fennel and split bulb into quarters. Remove core from fennel.
Peel the celery root by cutting away the outer dark skin. Cut into pieces small enough to fit in the feed tube of a food processor fitted with the coarse steel shredding blade. Shred apples, fennel and celery root. Place shredded vegetables in a large mixing bowl.
Combine the cranberry sauce, orange juice concentrate, lemon zest & juice, salt and a half –cup the pecans in the workbowl of a food processor and pulse for about 15-30 seconds.
Pour dressing over shredded vegetables. Add the remaining chopped pecans and the dried cranberries. Stir to mix completely.
May be prepared 1 day in advance.
Turkey Roulades with Italian Sausage and Dried Fruits
Cooking for a small group? Turkey tenderloins are easy to find in most stores and can easily be butterflied and pounded out to encase a sweet and savory filling of Italian sausage, fruit & nuts. Cooking for a large crowd? Simply replace the tenderloins with a boneless turkey breast that has been butterflied and pounded.
Yield: 4 servings
2 mild Italian sausage links, (or ½ lb. bulk Italian sausage)
½ tart green apple (such as granny smith), peeled and diced 1/8”
1 tablespoon 1/8” diced dried apricots
1 tablespoon 1/8” diced prunes
1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted
1 slice smoked bacon, cut cross-wise into thin strips
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
Pinch of salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten
2 turkey breast tenderloins
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup flour
½ cup finely diced yellow onion
¼ cup Madeira wine
1 ½ cups chicken stock
Into a medium mixing bowl, squeeze out the ground sausage from inside the casings. Add the apple, apricots, prunes, pine nuts, bacon, nutmegs, salt, pepper, and eggs. Mix to combine.
Place the tenderloin on your cutting board so that it’s running lengthwise in front of you. Starting at the top center of the tenderloin, using a chef’s knife or boning knife, draw it lengthwise to make a cut running lengthwise and slightly downward to open up the left side as a “flap”. Do the same on the right side. Think of the tenderloin as a tri-fold business letter and you’re making the cuts to open up each flat. There will be one long tendon running lengthwise inside. Using a paring knife, try to carefully remove it by scraping the meat from the tendon, be careful not to make a whole in the tenderloin. Once both sides are “opened”, cover the tenderloin with a piece of waxed or parchment paper and use a heavy bottomed sauté pan or skillet to pound out the tenderloin to an even thickness of about 5/16”. Repeat with the second tenderloin.
With the pounded turkey tenderloin spread out on the cutting board, place half of the sausage filling in the center and spread it out to cover two-thirds of the tenderloin, leaving about a 1-inch space on the left and right sides, and about 2-inches on the side farthest from you. The sides will get folded inward while rolling and the filling will get pushed away from you as you’re rolling. Leaving these spaces empty will make it easier for the filling to spread without squeezing out of the roulade. Starting on the side nearest you, begin to roll the turkey tenderloin away from you while folding the sides inward as you roll. Roll up as you would a burrito or egg roll.
Tie with kitchen twine to hold it together.
Heat a large sauce pan over medium-high heat and add olive oil. When oil is hot, season flour with salt and pepper and lightly dredge turkey breasts. Using a pair of tongs, place roulades into hot pan and brown on all sides. When roulades are brown, remove from pan and set aside on a plate. Add diced onions to saucepan and turn heat down and let sweat until soft. Deglaze pan with Madeira wine and place roulades back into pan. Add chicken stock and cover tightly. Simmer on low until filling reaches 165 degrees. Remove roulades from pan and set aside on a plate. Reduce sauce until thickened. Slice roulades and overlap on plate and drizzle with sauce.
